Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that people comply with their child maintenance responsibilities.

The Department has wide-ranging powers to collect and enforce child maintenance liabilities where parents will not meet their obligations voluntarily. As of September 2017 11,100 civil enforcement actions were in progress, around 4000 more than the previous year. A public consultation on a new Compliance and Arrears Strategy containing measures aimed at increasing compliance, closed on 8^th February 2018. A Government response to this consultation will be published in due course.